This invention relates generally to telecommunications conferencing and, more particularly, to telecommunications conferencing in which the identities of one or more active speakers are displayed on video monitors.
Participants in multi-party telephone conference calls often have difficulty identifying the current speaker or speakers at any particular time. This is especially true when a conference includes large numbers of participants with similar voices and accents, and when participants do not know each other particularly well.
Some commercially available conference call bridges (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,522, which issued Feb. 27, 1996, to Bruce S. Allen et al.) provide a dedicated console for use by conference call operators which can show who is talking on the conference call in real time. These consoles typically display a symbol, such an asterisk, that flashes next to symbols for the line or lines currently talking. This is sometimes referred to as a xe2x80x9cbouncing ballxe2x80x9d display because the symbol appears to bounce from line to line. The conference call operator uses this display when a noisy line needs to be identified. For example, if one participant puts the conference call on hold and inadvertently plays music into the conference, that line needs to be identified and muted for the conference call to be able to proceed. A disadvantage is that, for a conference call with a large number of participants, the operator may need to scroll through at least several screens of data before identifying the most recent talker(s).
Although they make it available to the operator, most conference call systems and services do not give access to active talker information to conference participants. One that does (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,588, which issued Jan. 9, 1996, to Glenn A. Eaton et al.) offers participants a touch-tone command that audibly announces the names of all connected participants and then audibly announces the name of the most recent active talker. Such an approach does not provide continuous identification of the active speaker(s), and suffers the additional drawback that a spoken recording of each participant""s name must be available, requiring a registration step for all participants during which their names can be recorded.
This invention permits participants of a conference call to see a continuously updated display on their own web browsers identifying the current speaker(s) on the conference call. According to the invention, in a telecommunications conferencing system which includes a conference bridge having a plurality of ports, voice connections are established between a plurality of conference participants and respective ports of the conference bridge, human readable visual labels are assigned individually to each of the participants and their respective ports, data connections are established between the conference bridge and respective video monitors for at least some of the participants, respective visual labels for the active speakers are displayed at a fixed location on each of the video monitors, the ports being used by the currently active speakers are detected, and the displayed labels are continually updated according to detected ports as the currently active speakers change. Because visual speaker labels are displayed at fixed screen locations, each participant knows where to look at all times and any need to scroll through multiple screens of data is minimized.
From one aspect of the invention, the data connections are established over the Internet between the conference bridge and respective computers with video monitors through a web server. Because Internet connections are readily available to most users, there is usually no need for special purpose software either to be downloaded or installed on individual computers.
From another aspect of the invention, the conference bridge port being used by the loudest currently active speaker is detected, the respective label for the loudest currently active speaker is displayed, and the displayed label is continually updated as the loudest currently active speaker changes.
From yet another aspect of the invention, all of the conference bridge ports being used by currently active speakers are detected, the respective labels for all currently active speakers are displayed, and the displayed labels are continually updated as the currently active speakers change.
From another aspect of the invention, voice connections are established over the public switched telephone network and data connections are established over a packet network. The Internet is currently the most prominent example of a packet network readily accessible by a huge number of users.
From another aspect of the invention, the labels are displayed on the video monitors through broadly available web browsers, thereby eliminating any need for additional computer software to be downloaded from the web server or to be installed on any of the computers.
From another aspect of the invention, a Java programming language mini-application (applet) maintains a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) connection with the web server for each of the data connections, thereby allowing the web server to send current talker updates to each of the video monitors without conference participant action and without browser polling of the web server.
From still another aspect of the invention, at least some of the voice connections may be established over the packet network itself.
From yet another aspect of the invention, a personal identification number (PIN), unique within a current conference and personal to himself, is generated for at least one participant, that PIN on is displayed on that participant""s video monitor, and that participant may enter the PIN over a respective voice connection to access the current conference.
From another aspect of the invention, a voice connection phone number for dialing into the conference bridge, a conference access code individual to the conference, and a PIN individual to the participant are displayed on that participant""s video monitor, and that phone number and that access code are used to establish voice and data connections to the conference bridge. In addition, the PIN may be used to associate the participant""s own voice connection with his own data connection.
From still another aspect of the invention, a participant may use his PIN to gain access to a current conference after a voice connection to the conference bridge has been established.
From still another aspect of the invention, a participant may use his PIN to gain access to the current conference before a voice connection to the conference bridge has been established.
From yet another aspect of the invention, summary information of talker activity during the current conference, which may include not only statistics but also charts and graphs, is collected at the conference bridge, and the collected information is displayed at the video monitors of at least some of the conference participants.
From another aspect of the invention, a Java applet is used for displaying text messages from any conference participant with a data connection to at least one of the other conference participants with a respective data connection.
From still another aspect of the invention, a Java applet is used for showing, in addition to the current talker(s), which participants have recently joined the conference.
From yet another aspect of the invention, a Java applet is used for showing, in addition to the current talker(s), which participants have recently left the conference.
From yet another aspect of the invention, at least one port is shared by multiple speakers using a directional speakerphone, the directional speakerphone transmit directional information to the conferencing system, and the directional information is combined with detected port information to update the associated currently active speaker label.